With a tight labor market, some technology companies are focusing more on how to keep their current employees happy.
Offering a new hire $5,000 to leave after just two weeks may not sound like a smart business move, but Chris Ronzio said it gives people time to reconsider.
“Now that I’ve been here, I’ve met the people, I’ve been to the meetings, I’ve gone through the training, I understand the work that I’ve got to do in the next month — is this really the job that I want? And so we give them the opportunity to take the money and leave or stick with us,” he said.
So far, Ronznio said no one’s taken the money and left Trainual, his Scottsdale-based software company.
During a webinar hosted by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Ronzio said his workplace culture includes listening to people, giving them autonomy, investing in professional development, providing an open forum to share feedback, and showing employees when action is taken based on their feedback.
“We increased the flexibility,” said Ellie Casson with Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company with a strong presence in Arizona.
Although the company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, she said, Waymo now lets employees choose where they want to work.
“We have seen team members making the choice to relocate to places that are more consistent with the life they want to have,” she said.
When the pandemic began, Casson said Waymo supported employees who needed time to care for loved ones. Since then, she said Waymo has formalized policies to allow for that time without hurting full-time employment status.
“I personally will say it’s crucial for longevity for longevity for someone like me and others at Waymo,” she said.
In April, Comptia, a technology trade association, reportedthe unemployment rate for tech jobs was about one-third the national rate. It found software developers and engineers most in demand with IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects also in high demand.
